Gearing up for the Manchester Open

The inaugural Manchester Open gets under way on Thurdsay when a world-class draw, featuring seven of the world’s top 10 female players will line up to battle it out for the PSA World Tour Silver title from 9th to 13th May.

The Manchester Open – a women’s only tournament – will see players compete for the inaugural trophy and a $76,000 prize fund at Manchester’s National Squash Centre.

DRAWS & RESULTS TWITTER FEED PHOTO GALLERY THE PLAYERS

The tournament is supported by Manchester City Council and follows the successful staging of the award-winning AJ Bell PSA World Championships in the city in December 2017, where equal prize money was on offer across both the men’s and women’s events for the first time in the tournament’s history.

Egypt’s World No.3 and this season’s PSA World Championship runner-up Nour El Tayeb headlines the draw ahead of New Zealand’s World No.5 Joelle King and England No.1 Sarah-Jane Perry.

Egypt’s World No.7 Nouran Gohar, England’s former World No.1 Laura Massaro, British National champion Tesni Evans and former World No.3 Alison Waters all also feature alongside USA No.1 Amanda Sobhy and eight-time World Champion Nicol David.

The top eight seeds all receive a bye into round two, where current English No.1 Perry and Malaysian icon David are seeded to meet. Meanwhile, top seed El Tayeb could face former World Champion Massaro for a place in the semi-finals.

There could also be a British showdown between England No.1 Perry and Welsh World No.8 Evans in the quarter-finals should both players play to their seedings, with the Englishwoman aiming to avenge her round three defeat to Evans at the PSA World Championships.

Hong Kong Open winner and No.2 seed King will take on either Belgium’s Nele Gilis or Scotland’s Lisa Aitken for a place in the quarter-finals, depending on who comes out on top in their fiercely contested first-round meeting on 9th May.

Elsewhere, home favourites Julianne Courtice and wildcard Rachael Chadwick will get their tournaments under way against US National champion Olivia Blatchford Clyne and Netherlands’ Milou van der Heijden.

The Manchester Open begins at 12:00 (GMT+1) on Thursday 9th May when round one action begins.

DRAWS & RESULTS TWITTER FEED PHOTO GALLERY THE PLAYERS